Where the River Takes Us
by Qyndox
Summary: Having been a tool for a criminal group Lapis has many regrets. Yet somehow, she found herself a traveling companion in Peridot, a hacker with a liking for steel-types. Lapis just can't seem to escape her past, but Peridot will stand by her for everything. Lapidot pokemon AU.
1. lost in thought

The duo and their teams had stopped walking for a break near a body of water, which Lapis' companion had insisted on since her pale skin burned easily.

Peridot had immediately plopped down in the shade and took out her technological possessions out of her bag.

Her Joltik scampered off its perch on her shoulder onto the grassy ground. Peridot took out a premier ball and a quick ball. With a flick of her wrist, the rest of her team was released from their balls.

Her Magnemite hovered around her while her Aron began to explore the surrounding area, her trainer not needing her for technical support.

Joltik was chattering to her trainer with small squeaks and clicks.

The yellow-haired dork began typing away at her laptop, opening multiple programs with data structures.

Snorting in amusement, Lapis decided on sitting down closer to the water, on the rocky shore. She unattached a net ball, poke ball, and dusk ball from her trainer belt and released their occupants.

Kabutops surveyed the area tense before relaxing when no threats were found. She then wandered off toward some large rocks scattered around.

Her Vaporeon perked up when she realized she was in a large body of water and made a pleased sound. When the she looked to her trainer for permission, Lapis nodded and the water-type immediately dove down.

Squirtle took one look at the bright sun and proceeded to scamper onto Lapis' lap.

The sound of scraping alerted Lapis to her Kabutops slashing up a rock nearby. Having surfaced in the water, Vaporeon lazily swam in the lagoon. Meanwhile, Squirtle was shyly huddled in her lap, crooning at her in concern.

As she looked at the deep waters, Lapis couldn't help but recall the past she so desperately tried to escape.

Lapis regretted what she had done; regardless of the fact that Team Rocket forced her to.

She was always being used, she was really was no different from all the pokemon the criminal organization had enslaved. Ironic considering their data banks labeled her with a serial number like any item or pokemon had. She was a weapon to them, not a person.

Shutting her eyes, the blue haired girl dug her nails into her palms.

Squirtle made alarmed sounds and clutched her jacket as if to wake her up.

And wake Lapis it did. As if waking from a day dream, she was suddenly aware that she was outside again. Squirtle was banging her small claws on her abdomen.

Lapis shook her head as if to dispel the dark thoughts she had trapper herself in.

"Sorry girl. Thanks for waking me up." Squirtle cracked a smile and beamed with pride. Lapis rubbed the turtle's head with affection. The small pokemon's skin was speckled with scars. Most of them were from the brutal battles that the pokemon had been put through.

"Hey Lapis, ARE YOU OKAAAYY?"

Lapis turned her head to the short girl screeching at the top of her lungs.

"YEAH!" Lapis yelled back.

"ARE YOU SURE?"

"YES!"

"OKAAAY!" Giving her a thumbs up, Peridot returned to her computer.

Lapis snorted, but only thinking of her companion's rough attempts at comforting her to be adorable and caring.

Well she was still healing from the regret that chained her down, but Lapis thought she would be okay with Peridot by her side.

* * *

I want to do more with this AU, I have lots of ideas, maybe even include other SU characters!

Give me some feedback and love! (Preferably in comments more than1 sentence long)

Review, favorite and follow!

Originally published: September 7 2017


	2. the only choice to make

"How did you come up with your pokemon's nicknames?" The clouds drifted slowly above her, the sky a bright blue.

In the corner of her eye, Lapis saw Peridot turn towards her. "That's actually a pretty simple answer."

Curious, Lapis pushed herself upright from the grassy slope she was lying on.

Peridot scooped up her Joltik, cupping the furry spider in her hands. "My joltik is an electric battery so I call her Ree for short."

Putting the electric bug back on the ground, she gestured to her Magnemite floating above her.

"Po is short for polarity due to the magnet like attributes they have." Her aron was not out so the yellow-haired girl addressed Lapis, "And arons are gluttonous metal consumers so I call her Ton in shorthand."

It figures that such a nerd would name their pokemon in a semi-practical and matter-of-fact manner.

Peridot paused, nervously glancing away for some reason Lapis was not sure of. She wore a anxious expression. Just before Lapis was to ask her what was wrong, the visored girl spoke.

"Can I ask how you named yours?"

 _Oh, that's what she was wondering?_ Lapis internally snorted.

"Yeah," Lapis replied, "Well it's a little embarrassing, but I'll tell you."

Looking to her Vaporeon snoozing on the grass next to her, the blue-haired girl smiled, "Ever since I got Chi she's been a very mischievous pokemon, even before she evolved. I guess I wanted her name to reflect that aspect of her personality."

Lapis' smile faded to a frown, "As for my squirtle…"

 _There was growling and sounds of pain and fear. But she could feel their fear, anger and rage. They were hurting and the sounds wouldn't stop. But they were trapped. Just like her._

Clenching her hand into a fist, Lapis did her best not to let her voice waver, "When I got her, she was wary and fearful-"

 _Glimmering eyes stared at her with wariness and fear. They flinched every time she moved._

"-But once she trusted me, she was so bright and cheery, so I called her Sunny."

Lapis skimmer her fingers over the dusk ball containing said turtle.

"Why don't you name your Kabutops?"

Lapis froze, looking at Peridot with an alarmed and frenzied look. Lapis' heart beat seemed to stop for a moment. The hacker flinched and seemed to regret saying that out loud.

Taking a deep breathe, Lapis recomposed herself and answered her companion but without looking up.

"Because she doesn't have any personality."

Peridot did not gasp, but with her expression she might as well have.

Not wanting her to remain confused, Lapis clarified, "I don't sense any emotions from her other than anger and excitement during battle. She is just empty outside of battle."

Peridot already knew about Lapis' secret powers. The blue-haired girl could sense emotions and feelings of pokemon.

But Lapis wished she didn't have this ability for times like this.

"I guess when they revived her from a fossil, they made her battle all the time until that was all she knew." It probably didn't help that Kabutops were naturally violent predators. Those scythes weren't for show after all.

Peridot seemed to want to interrupt, but Lapis didn't notice her raise her hand.

"I want to help her, but I have no idea how. Honestly just being near her is hard, but I couldn't just leave her there"

"Lapis." Peridot's voice interrupted Lapis' trailing rant. She looked up to her yellow-haired companion.

"Why don't you just give her up?"

Lapis' eyes widened. "What!"

Peridot raised her arms in a surrendering manner, "Don't misunderstand, I don't mean abandon her, but maybe give her to someone who can help her!"

"Like who?"

"Well there's tons of places that are licensed for recovering hurt and traumatized pokemon. We could send her off at one of those organizations!" Peridot smiled hopefully.

Lapis stopped. She had never thought about that, she didn't know all the worldly things most did considering her "sheltered" life prior to meeting Peridot.

But this sounded promising.

"Will this work?"

The hacker's smile brightened in relief, "We'll make it work."

* * *

 _~2 hours later~_

Once they reached Olivine City, the duo headed to the pokemon center.

Peridot assured her that there would be information there. They entered the building, the air-condition blasting their faces with cold air.

Only Ree was out of her pokeball, seated on her trainer's shoulder. The others were resting in their pokeballs.

There were some trainers lounging about, along with a bellsprout and a raticate.

Lapis couldn't help but cautiously scan the trainers for signs of potential threat and cataloguing their danger.

 _Young teenaged male and bellsprout, with three other occupied pokeballs. relatively newbie._

 _Adult female and Raticate, one other occupied great ball, novice with no long-term ambitions._

Peridot noticed the blue-haired trainer narrowing her eyes at the other visitors and grabbed her hand. Startled, Lapis was dragged towards the pc room.

There were no other people using the pc's so Lapis sighed and gave Peridot an apologetic look.

"Sorry."

"It's alright, just try to calm down. I'm here with you." Lapis smiled at that.

The two trainers settled down huddled around one pc.

Peridot pulled up a website titled, "Harmony Health." There were articles and news reports about their aid in helping pokemon recovering from mistreatment.

"This looks good." Lapis admitted. These people had better chance at helping Kabutops than her.

Looking to her traveling companion, "So how do I give them Kabutops?"

Peridot scanned a page and responded, "It says here that you can anonymously give them a pokemon at their center, though some paperwork will be needed...Oh, they even have a site in Olivine! We could drop Kabutops off here!"

Lapis gave a torn smile, mulling over the idea.

She detached the dive ball from her belt and simply held it in her palm.

 _The large rock-type was for protection they said. It scared her honestly. But when a straggler enemy houndoom leaped at her, those blades shielded her._

This was for the best.

 _It was a high leveled fighter, and offered no camaraderie whatsoever. But she was used to feeling alone and suffocating._

Steeling herself, Lapis made the decision.

* * *

The building was a specialized structure, sterile but friendly in nature, like a hospital.

The front desk a sleepy looking woman was struggling to stay awake. A chimecho was resting on her head.

Seeing the two of them approaching, the chime pokemon kicked off the woman's head, ringing a alerting bell sound.

The woman roused from half-sleep and rubbed her eyes as she peered at the two visitors. Her nametag read 'Alex.'

Alex straightened up slightly, "Hello, welcome to Harmony Healing, how can I help you?"

Lapis responded, feeling the need to do this herself, "I'm here to surrender a pokemon that needs help." She hoped they wouldn't assume she was the one to hurt her pokemon.

The receptionist just nodded without changing her expression and pulled out a paper form.

"I'll need you to fill this out, and bring it to me with the registered pokeball of said pokemon. Feel free to fill it out on the couches." She gestured to the lobby waiting area.

Lapis nodded and set herself down on the lobby's couches, filling out the paperwork.

Peridot sat down next to her. Ree clicked and made a fuss, and in response Peridot rubbed her head with her finger.

The form basically asked for details that would help them work with and help the given pokemon. There was an optional portion if someone wanted to give their information and contact.

Even if Lapis had a trainer license, she wouldn't have put her information.

She scribbled out as much as she could- species, notes on about kabutops, details on her issues- and gathered the papers up to turn in.

Alex looked over the papers, her chimecho trilling and hovering over her shoulder. She seemed satisfied and looked back up, "Everything looks fine, can I see your surrendered pokemon's ball?"

Lapis unclipped the dive ball from her trainer belt and handed it over to Alex.

The sleepy receptionist placed it in a pokeball scanner (a device to scan the contents and associate information of the occupant, also installed in healing machines in enters) and waited for the results to show on her screen.

She looked over it and said that everything was in order. She said that the process was complete and thanked them for the surrender.

Lapis stared at the wave designed pokeball as Alex put it away with a label.

She was really doing it. She just gave up Kabutops.

She suddenly as though she couldn't breathe. Lapis faintly heard Peridot thank the receptionist and pull her outside the building, to a bench.

Lapis gasped for air, Peridot telling her to breathe in and out.

"Breathe Lapis! In and out. Just focus on breathing." She insisted as she squeezed Lapis' upper arm.

Lapis jerked her head in a nodding manner and continued to force herself to breathe. She wanted to sob, but she wouldn't.

"...sorry. I just-"

Peridot patted her forearm in reassurance. Ree clicked in concern and worry, seemingly ready to leap onto Lapis' shoulder.

Lapis cracked a strained smile at the two being so similar in trying to comfort her.

"I-I'm fine now. Let's go check out the Olivine gym like you wanted."

When Peridot's expression did a 180 and she had stars in her eyes, Lapis chuckled along with Ree.


End file.
